British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and is now the dominant branch of Parliament. Parliament also includes the Sovereign and the upper house, the House of Lords. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 646 members, who are known as "Members of Parliament" or "MPs." Members are elected by the first past the post system of election for limited terms, holding office until Parliament is dissolved (a maximum of five years). Each member is elected by, and represents, an electoral district known as a constituency. The House of Commons is the source of the vast majority of government ministers and, since 1963, every Prime Minister.

History

Parliament developed from the council that advised the King during mediæval times. This royal council included ecclesiastics, noblemen, as well as representatives of the counties (known as "knights of the shire"). The chief duty of the council was to approve taxes proposed by the Crown. In many cases, however, the council demanded the redress of the people's grievances before proceeding to vote on taxation. Thus, it developed legislative powers.

Related Topics:
Counties - Knights of the shire

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In the "Model Parliament" of 1295, representatives of the boroughs (including towns and cities) were also admitted. Thus, it became settled practice that each county send two knights of the shire, and that each borough send two burgesses. At first, the representatives of the boroughs were almost entirely powerless; whilst county representation was fixed, the monarch could enfranchise or disfranchise boroughs at pleasure. Any show of independence by burgesses would have led to the exclusion of their towns from Parliament. The knights of the shire were in a better position, though still less powerful than their aristocratic counterparts in the still unicameral Parliament. The division of Parliament into two houses occurred during the reign of Edward III: the knights and burgesses formed the House of Commons, whilst the clergy and nobility formed the House of Lords.

Related Topics:
Model Parliament - 1295 - Borough - Edward III

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Though they remained subordinate to both the Crown and the Lords, the Commons did act with increasing boldness. During the Good Parliament (1376), the Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Peter de la Mare, complained of heavy taxes, demanded an accounting of the royal expenditures, and criticised the King's management of the military. The Commons even proceeded to impeach some of the King's ministers. The bold Speaker was imprisoned, but was soon released after the death of King Edward III. During the reign of the next monarch, Richard II, the Commons once again began to impeach errant ministers of the Crown. They insisted that they could not only control taxation, but also public expenditures. Despite such gains in authority, however, the Commons still remained much less powerful than the House of Lords and the Crown.

Related Topics:
Good Parliament - 1376 - Speaker of the House of Commons - Sir Peter de la Mare - Impeach - Richard II

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The influence of the Crown was further increased by the civil wars of the late fifteenth century, which destroyed the power of the great nobles. Both houses of Parliament held little power during the ensuing years, and the absolute supremacy of the Sovereign was restored. The domination of the Crown grew even further during the reigns of the monarchs of the Tudor dynasty in the sixteenth century. This trend, however, was somewhat reversed when the House of Stuart came to the English Throne in 1603. The first two Stuart monarchs, James I and Charles I, provoked conflicts with the Commons over issues such as taxation, religion, and royal powers.

Related Topics:
Tudor dynasty - House of Stuart - 1603 - James I - Charles I

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The bitter differences between Charles I and Parliament were great, and were settled only by the English Civil War. The King was beheaded, and the monarchy and Upper House abolished, in 1649. Although the Commons were in theory supreme, the nation was truly under the control of a military dictator, Oliver Cromwell. The monarchy and the House of Lords were, however, both restored in 1660, soon after Cromwell's death. The influence of the Crown had been lessened, and was further diminished when James II was deposed in the course of the Glorious Revolution (1688). The House of Lords, however, soon returned to its dominant position in Parliament, and would continue to occupy such a position until the nineteenth century.

Related Topics:
English Civil War - 1649 - Oliver Cromwell - 1660 - James II - Glorious Revolution - 1688

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The eighteenth century was notable in that it was marked by the development of the office of Prime Minister. The modern notion that the Government may remain in power only as long as it retains the support of Parliament soon became established. The modern notion that only the support of the House of Commons is necessary, however, was of much later development. Similarly, the custom that the Prime Minister is always a Member of the Lower House, rather than the Upper one, did not evolve immediately.

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The House of Commons experienced an important period of reform during the nineteenth century. The Crown had made use of its prerogative of enfranchising and disenfranchising boroughs very irregularly, and several anomalies had developed in borough representation. Many towns that were once important but had become inconsiderable by the nineteenth century retained their ancient right of electing two Members each. The most notorious of these "rotten boroughs" was Old Sarum, which had only eleven voters; at the same time, large cities such as Manchester received no separate representation, although their eligible residents were able to vote in the corresponding county seat - in the case of Manchester, Lancashire. Also notable were the pocket boroughs—small constituencies controlled by wealthy landowners and aristocrats, whose "nominees" were invariably elected by the voters.

Related Topics:
Rotten borough - Old Sarum - Manchester - Lancashire

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:See the major article Unreformed House of Commons for more on this subject

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The Reform Acts and Parliament Acts

The Commons attempted to address these anomalies by passing a Reform Bill in 1831. At first, the House of Lords proved unwilling to pass the bill, but were forced to relent when the Prime Minister, Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, advised King William IV to flood the House of Lords with several pro-Reform Members. Before the King could take such an action, the Lords passed the bill in 1832. The "Reform Act 1832" abolished the rotten boroughs, established uniform voting requirements for the boroughs, and granted representation to populous cities, but also retained many pocket boroughs. In the ensuing years, the Commons grew more assertive, the influence of the House of Lords having been damaged by the Reform Bill Crisis, and the power of the patrons of pocket boroughs having been diminished. The Lords became more reluctant to reject bills that the Commons passed with large majorities, and it became an accepted political principle that the support of the House of Commons alone was necessary for a Prime Minister to remain in office.

Related Topics:
1831 - Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey - William IV - 1832 - Reform Act 1832

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Many further reforms were introduced during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Reform Act 1867 lowered property requirements for voting in the boroughs, reduced the representation of the less populous boroughs, and granted parliamentary seats to several growing industrial towns. The electorate was further expanded by the Representation of the People Act 1884, under which property qualifications in the counties were lowered. The Redistribution of Seats Act of the following year replaced almost all multi-member constituencies with single-member constituencies.

Related Topics:
Reform Act 1867 - Representation of the People Act 1884 - Redistribution of Seats Act

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The next important phase in the history of the House of Commons came during the early twentieth century. In 1908, the Liberal Government under Herbert Henry Asquith introduced a number of social welfare programmes, which, together with an expensive arms race with Germany, had forced the Government to seek more funding in the form of tax increases. In 1909, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, introduced the "People's Budget", which proposed a new tax targeting wealthy landowners. The unpopular measure, however, failed in the heavily Conservative House of Lords.

Related Topics:
1908 - Liberal - Herbert Henry Asquith - Social welfare - Arms race - Germany - 1909 - Chancellor of the Exchequer - David Lloyd George

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Having made the powers of the House of Lords a primary campaign issue, the Liberals were re-elected in January 1910. Asquith then proposed that the powers of the House of Lords be severely curtailed. Proceedings on the bill were briefly interrupted by the death of King Edward VII, but were soon recommenced under the new monarch, George V. After fresh elections in December 1910, the Asquith Government secured the passage of a bill to curtail the powers of the House of Lords. The Prime Minister proposed, and the King agreed, that the House of Lords could be flooded by the creation of five hundred new Liberal peers if it failed to pass the bill. (This was the same device used earlier to force the Upper House to consent to the passage of the Reform Act 1832.) The Parliament Act 1911 soon came into effect, destroying the legislative equality of the two Houses of Parliament. The House of Lords was only permitted to delay most legislation for a maximum of three parliamentary sessions or two calendar years—reduced to two sessions or one year by the Parliament Act 1949. Since the passage of these Acts, the House of Commons has remained the dominant branch of Parliament, both in theory and in practice.

Related Topics:
1910 - King Edward VII - George V - Parliament Act 1911 - Parliament Act 1949

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